Highest accuracy for loading viscous bitumen

GRISARD BITUMEN AG relies on Promass Q 500

GRISARD BITUMEN AG develops, refines and distributes bituminous adhesives of high quality. The standard bitumen delivered to BITUTANK AG by ship is refined with additives to make polymer-modified bitumen (PmB) and then transported to the customer by rail or tank car. To load tank cars, GRISARD BITUMEN AG uses a truck scale and the new Promass Q 500 Coriolis flowmeter. This flowmeter enables the bitumen, which sometimes outgasses, to be measured with unprecedented accuracy.

The customer's challenge

Previously, the amount of bitumen filled into the tank cars was determined using a truck scale and another type of Coriolis flowmeter. Due to the outgassing processes in highly viscous bitumen, however, this older Coriolis flowmeter showed measuring errors of up to 8% as compared to the truck scale. Since the flow measurement point is operated system-dependently on both the discharge side and intake side of a pump, outgassing processes are the norm due to pressure fluctuations.

Our solution

The bitumen application made it necessary to search for a flow measuring technology (i.e. Promass Q 500) that ensures the greatest loading accuracies for viscous fluids and is not sensitive to process pressure and gas content fluctuations.Another requirement, based on the need for better plant availability, was to enable all measured data to be saved, evaluated and retrieved using a web-based cloud solution.

Proline Promass Q 500

In place of the original Coriolis flowmeter – which had provided flawless measurement results for bitumen that was not outgassing – a Promass Q 500 was installed specifically for the bitumen loading station:– Measurement is not dependent on fluctuations in process pressure and temperature– Excellent performance for business transactions, e.g. custody transfer and/or invoicing– Patented “Multi-Frequency Technology” (MFT) for reliable measurement of fluids with gas entrainment or microbubbles